We usually see a photograph as a solitary work, a passing moment in time captured to be examined on its own. However, creating a coherent story through a body of work can lift your photography up to a new level.
It’s very easy to find information online about new cameras, news, rumors, reviews, and which camera you should be using right now. But there’s far less information to be found about older cameras. Like many photographers, I find it interesting to look at the origins of photography and how far the science and technology in cameras has come in a relatively short period of time.
Canon introduced the EF mount in 1987, and it brought with it a number of innovations while ushering in the autofocus era for the company. Before that, though, was the FD mount, and while it had almost exclusively manual focus lenses, one special lens, the FD 35-70mm f/4 AF, actually had a very strange and unique autofocus system, and this neat video shows what it was like to shoot with.
Digital cameras have been around for just a moment compared to the long history of film photography, and that means within those many decades are some truly interesting and unique cameras. One of the weirdest and most beloved among those is the Rollei 35, and this great video takes a look at five reasons why it was such a fun and interesting camera.
With all of our fussing over codecs and bitrates, and demanding 4K 120 fps at every latest camera release, it can be good practice to look back at where some of this technology started in order to get a bit of perspective. This beautifully edited video illustrates perfectly how the likes of Canon and Sony are most certainly standing on the shoulders of giants.
The original Canon 1D came out almost 20 years ago, in November of 2001, and it represented the company’s arrival on the professional digital camera market. Since then, the 1D series has become well known for its high-level capabilities and almost unbreakable build, becoming a favorite of countless pros around the world. What was the original model like, though? This neat video takes a look at the shooting experience and image quality. Spoiler alert: the colors are beautiful.
Photos are, at their essence, about acting as a witness to a feeling or emotion. Neal Treadwell and Hugh Nini’s accidental collection, 100 Years of Men in Love, is a witness to love and hope. Showing on HereTV, David Millbern‘s documentary about Nini and Treadwell’s collection is well worth the 60 minute investment.
25 years ago, Sony unveiled the DSC-F1, a 0.3-megapixel digital stills camera with a rotating lens. Check out this piece of photographic history as Gordon Laing takes it on a quick tour of Brighton.